Saločiai (Salat in Yiddish) is located in northern Lithuania, on the
shores of the Musa (Musha) River, about 23 km (14 miles) west of the district
administrative center of Birzai (Birzh). It was mentioned for the first time in
historical documents in 1514. A commercial route connected Posvol (Pasvalys) to
Bauska in Latvia through Salat. As early as 1525, several shops and pubs could
be found in Salat. During the wars with the Swedes (1700-1721) the town was
burned down. During the Russian rule (1795-1915) Salat was first included in
the Vilna Province and from 1843 onwards was in the Kovno Province
(Gubernia). From 1915 to 1918 the town was under the German military
rule and during the period of Independent Lithuania (1918-1940), it was considered
a county administrative center.

Jewish Settlement before World War II

Jews began to settle in Salat in the nineteenth century. A community of
Karaites lived in the area from the seventeenth century until the middle of the
nineteenth century. In the 1880s approximately eighty Jewish families lived in
the villages around Salat. They barely survived, working as craftsmen and
trading agricultural products in neighboring villages. The catholic priest of
Salat preached to the village peasants not to rent their houses to Jews,
threatening them with refusals to hear their confessions. The rabbi of Posvol
tried to convince the priest to stop inciting the peasants against the Jews.
Eventually he succeeded, and the priest became a sympathizer of the Jews.

A Loans and Savings fund was established in Salat before World War I.

In spring of 1915, the Russian military exiled Salat Jews deep into Russia.
After the war only a fraction of the exiled residents returned to their town.

Following the law of autonomies for minorities issued by the new Lithuanian
government, the minister for Jewish affairs Dr. Menahem (Max) Soloveitshik
ordered elections to community committees (Va'adei Kehilah) to be held in the
summer of 1919. A community committee of five members was elected in Salat. The
committee worked from 1920 until the end of 1925 and covered all aspects of
Jewish life.

The first census performed by the Lithuanian government in 1923 showed 621
residents in Salat, including 174 (28%) Jews. Salat Jews worked in trade and
agriculture. Their main source of income was weekly market days (Tuesdays) and
the annual fairs.

According to the government survey of 1931, in Salat there were seven shops,
all Jewish owned; a grocery, a textile, two haberdashery and domestic tools,
one cosmetic store and two others. In addition to these stores, there were five
other small Jewish shops.

The market square in Salat

According to the same survey, there were five Jewish-owned light industry
enterprises; one for shoes, one dye and two candy factories and one bakery.

In 1939, there were fifteen telephones in town, only one belonging to a Jew.

Salat had a synagogue and a Jewish school. Among the rabbis who served in Salat
was Josef, son of Mosheh Yafe, (1846-1893), who died in Manchester, England. In
1910 Hayim-Shaul Levitan became the official rabbi and he was replaced by the
last rabbi of Salat, Rabbi Mosheh-Yonah Vainer, who was murdered in the
Holocaust.

Many Salat Jews belonged to the Zionist camp. Most of the Zionist parties had
supporters in the town. In 1934, an Urban Training Kibbutz of HeHalutz was
formed. At the elections for the Zionist congresses Salat Jews voted as shown:

CongressNo.

Year

TotalShkalim

Total Votes

Labor Party

ZS

ZZ

Revisionists

General Zionists

A

B

Grosmanists

Mizrakhi

18

1933



31

17



7

5



1

1

19

1935



25

21







4





21

1939

30

15

5



4

Nat

Block





1939













4



Yisahar Ber Falkenson was born in Salat in 1764, and qualified as a Doctor of
Medicine in Berlin. Falkenson was a friend of the philosopher Mosheh Mendelson.
He published poems in German: the German poet Goethe wrote a review on
Falkenson's book entitled Gedichte eines polnischen Juden (Poems
of a Polish Jew).

During World War II and Afterwards

In June 1940, Lithuania was annexed to the Soviet Union and became a Soviet
Republic. Following new rules, the majority of the factories and shops
belonging to the Jews of Salat were nationalized and commissars were appointed
to manage them. All Zionist parties and youth organizations were dismantled and
Hebrew educational institutions were closed. At this time about 25 Jewish
families lived in Salat.

The Germans arrived in Salat a few days after the German army invaded the Soviet
Union on June 22nd, 1941. The Lithuanian nationalists, who by then were
well organized, immediately murdered thirteen Jews and six Lithuanians, looting
everything they could get their hands on. In August 1941, the Lithuanians
transferred the remaining Salat Jews to Posvol (Pasvalys). There they were kept
together with local Jews and others who were brought from towns and villages in
the area. On the morning of August 26th, 1941 (3rd
of Elul, 5701) many large trucks arrived in the town. The Jews were forced
onto them and transported to Zadeikiai forest, about 4.5 km. from Posvol, near
the Pyvesa River. There all were shot and buried in the freshly dug pits prepared
in advance. In these pits 1,358 men, women and children were buried.

The mass grave in Zadeikiai forest

The monument on the mass grave with the inscription in Yiddish and Lithuanian:
In this place on the 26th of August 1941 Hitler's murderers and their
local helpers murdered 1358 Jews, men, women, children.

The above article is an excerpt from Preserving Our Litvak Heritage
by Josef Rosin. The book contains this article along with many others, plus an
extensive description of the Litvak Jewish community in Lithuania that provides
an excellent context to understand the above article. Click here to see where
to obtain the book.

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose
of fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without permission of the copyright holders: Josef Rosin zl and Joel Alpert.

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